Milder today... wet Sunday ahead...

After a chilly day yesterday, many highs today will be about 15 degrees warmer than yesterday. Highs tomorrow will then be even a bit warmer.

If you have outdoor plans this weekend, I would definitely aim to complete them Saturday. Sunday continues to look like a rainy, fairly chilly day.

The rain will linger into Monday, and the system could still end as some wet snowflakes for some.

See the video for more...

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Much colder today...

Pretty wild weather day yesterday including some severe weather as well as damaging non-thunderstorm winds. Unfortunately, two people lost their lives due to falling trees yesterday.

In the wake of this system, it's much colder today with highs in the 40s in spite of a sunny sky. It is still fairly breezy today as well.

Temps will moderate tomorrow and Saturday with highs well into the 60s by Saturday afternoon.

Our next storm system will roll in here by Sunday. This is still a complex forecast, but it looks like we are set up for a relatively chilly rain event Sunday, and then as the system pulls away Sunday night and Monday morning, a few snowflakes are possible, especially in northern and northwestern NC. At this point, it doesn't look like a huge deal.

Here are all of the details in today's video...

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CoCoRaHS

Do you have an interest in joining up and playing a role in the weather enterprise? 

A very useful and easy way you can do that is by becoming a CoCoRaHS observer. These reports are vital to meteorologists and climatologists in all areas of the science, and the reports are often very useful and interesting to those in many other areas as well. 

Below is an article that gives you all of the information you need to know to join up. I would encourage you to consider it and get involved. It's a fun and easy way to participate in the science of meteorology.

Citizen Science Program needs your help observing the weather!

Do you ever wonder how much rainfall you received from a recent thunderstorm? How about snowfall during a winter storm? If so, a new volunteer weather observing program needs your help! The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow network, or CoCoRaHS, is looking for new volunteers across North Carolina. The grassroots effort is part of a growing national network of home-based and amateur rain spotters with a goal of providing a high density precipitation network that will supplement existing observations.

CoCoRaHS came about as a result of a devastating flash flood that hit Fort Collins, Colorado, in July 1997. A local severe thunderstorm dumped over a foot of rain in several hours while other portions of the city had only modest rainfall. The ensuing flood caught many by surprise and caused $200 million in damages. CoCoRaHS was born in 1998 with the intent of doing a better job of mapping and reporting intense storms. As more volunteers participated, rain, hail, and snow maps were produced for every storm showing fascinating local patterns that were of great interest to scientists and the public. Recently, drought reporting has also become an important observation within the CoCoRaHS program across the nation. In fact, drought observations from CoCoRaHS are now being included in the National Integrated Drought Information System.

North Carolina became the twenty-first state to establish the CoCoRaHS program in 2007, and by 2010, the CoCoRaHS network had reached all 50 states with nearly ten thousand observations being reported each day.  Through CoCoRaHS, thousands of volunteers, young and old, document the size, intensity, duration and patterns of rain, hail, and snow by taking simple measurements in their own backyards.

Volunteers may obtain an official rain gauge through the CoCoRaHS website ( http://www.cocorahs.org ) for about $28 plus shipping. Besides the need for an official 4 inch plastic rain gauge, volunteers are required to take a simple training module online and use the CoCoRaHS website to submit their reports. Observations are immediately available on maps and reports for the public to view. The process takes only five minutes a day, but the impact to the community is tenfold: By providing high quality, accurate measurements, the observers are able to supplement existing networks and provide useful results to scientists, resource managers, decision makers and other users.

“North Carolina has one of the most complex climates in the U.S.,” said Dr. Ryan Boyles, state climatologist and director of the State Climate Office, based at North Carolina State University.  “Data gathered from CoCoRaHS volunteers are very important in better understanding local weather and climate patterns.”

“An additional benefit of the program to the National Weather Service is the ability to receive timely reports of significant weather (hail, intense rainfall, localized flooding) from CoCoRaHS observers that can assist forecasters in issuing and verifying warnings for severe thunderstorms,” says David Glenn, CoCoRaHS State Coordinator and meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Newport/Morehead City.

How does one become a CoCoRaHS observer? Go to the CoCoRaHS website above and click on the “Join CoCoRaHS” emblem on the upper right side of the main website.  After registering, take the simple online training, order your 4 inch rain gauge and start reporting!

“We are in need of new observers across the entire state. We would like to emphasize rural locations, areas of higher terrain, and areas near the coast, especially on barrier islands,” added Glenn.

North Carolina CoCoRaHS can also be reached on Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/pages/CoCoRaHS-North-Carolina/125684927495324> and through Twitter @NC_CoCoRaHS .

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Hold onto your hats...

A cold front is approaching today, and as that front nears and moves through, we will have some very breezy conditions today. Winds will be sustained (out of the southwest through afternoon, then northwest tonight) in the 15-35mph range with some gusts possibly over 40 or even 50mph.

Some showers will remain a possibility this morning, and then we will likely see a thin band of showers or storms late this afternoon into this evening. There is at least a limited chance of a strong to severe storm. Damaging winds would be the biggest threat, but a brief spin-up tornado can't be totally ruled out.

Up in the mountains, some snow will kick into gear later this afternoon in the favored upslope areas as the cold air floods in.

That cold air takes over region-wide tonight with piedmont lows tonight in the 20s and highs tomorrow only in the 40s. Lows will head into the 20s again tomorrow night.

I am also watching a system Sunday-Monday with some interesting possibilities. See the video for more...

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Beautiful today... big blast of cold for Thursday...

The weekend weather was very nice across our region, and we then followed that up with some truly gorgeous weather Monday.

Well, it should wind up even a touch warmer today with highs well into the 70s across the region under a sunny sky. However, some changes then quickly begin to take place.

Clouds will roll in tonight, and some shower will be possible by late tonight and then into our Wednesday. This will be with an incoming cold front, and following that front, a sharp change back to cold weather will unfold. In fact, some snow will even fly up in the mountains by late tomorrow and tomorrow night.

Out in the piedmont, temps will plunge well down into the 20s by Thursday morning with highs Thursday afternoon struggling to make it into the lower 40s.

Down the road, some forecast question marks pop up for Sunday and Monday. I touch on all of this in today's video:

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